ZVR DIPLOMACY is collection of short stories around the
theme of an Earth which has been infected with a terrible
virus; it re-animates the dead and fills them with an
insatiable appetite for the flesh of the living. The
situation is so serious that humanity builds fighting
robots to help with the battle; at least they are immune to
the virus!
The stories are varied, ranging from a desperate last ditch
defence of Moscow helped by ingenious farmers to a tale of
what can happen when robots go wrong, and even the story of
a fearful choice having to be made by the King of England,
where he is the only one who can make the decision...
Edited by Jeff Conner ZVR Diplomacy hosts stories by a
number of authors including, but by no means limited to,
Ekaterina Sedia who has been published in Analog and
Clarkesworld, Dale Bailey who has won the The International
Horror Guild Award and Simon Kurt Unsworth who has appeared
in anthologies including The Very Best of Best New Horror.
With lots of blood and gore, well written and with twists
in the plots of many of the tales this will appeal to
Horror / SF fans. ZVR Diplomacy is one of a series of
Zombies VS Robots collections.
An international gorefest is the main attraction of the
eight original stories gathered in this anthology, fourth in
a series that invites writers to riff on the weird
juxtaposition of zombies and robots. The odd combination
sometimes does make the undead look more lively, aided by
fresh settings in the U.K. and Russia. The zombies are a
standard swarm of rotting, shambling brain-munchers, but the
robots are a more varied lot as they reflect the varieties
of human foolishness in trying to fend off the living dead.
Some of the stories simply groove on the conflict’s
absurdity; the most successful of these is the outrageously
over-the-top “Beheaded by Whip-wielding Nun” by Simon Clark.
Others, such as Ekaterina Sedia’s “Timka” and Simon Kurt
Unsworth’s “Spinbot”, try to find human interest in the
hopeless struggle.
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